Monday, February 28, 2011

In reaction to revolution and chaos in Libya, the United States has redeployed its naval assets in the Mediterranean so that it will be prepared for any contingencies. Col. Qadafi is still hanging on, although his personal pilot has fled the country. Italy is making up for its lost natural gas supplies from Libya by increasing its imports from Russia via the Gazprom pipeline.

Meanwhile, demonstrations and riots in Oman yesterday caused the deaths of at least six people.

In other news, the revelation that a mosque in Malmö is owned by one of Col. Ghedaffi’s foundations appears unlikely to cause any particular controversy in Sweden. The imam of the mosque says that Libya has no direct control and does not interfere with the mosque’s operations.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DF, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Kitman, Paul Weston, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

I posted yesterday about the Turkish prime minister’s bullying attitude towards Germany, and the willingness of Germany’s political class to put up with it, and perhaps even to give in to it.

Several commenters pointed out that the attitude of German citizens concerning Turkish immigration is very different from that displayed by their leaders. Ordinary people are fed up with immigrants and ghettos and mosques and crime, and want their country to be German again.

The same might be said of virtually any country in the West — the vast majority of people oppose mass immigration, and if given a chance will vote for parties that share that opinion and act on it. There is a disconnect between policies implemented by the political leadership and the feelings of the electorate, and yesterday’s post invited readers to analyze of the reasons for that disconnect.

Tonight I’ll take a look at the German-Turkish relationship from a different angle. The following article from Der Spiegel reports on Prime Minister Erdogan’s love-fest with ethnic Turks during his visit to Germany. You’ll notice that Mr. Erdogan does not act like a distinguished visitor from a foreign land, but rather an overlord visiting a vassal state.

It’s obvious that he considers the Turks in Germany to be his soldiers on the front lines of the Turkish colonization of Europe:

Erdogan Urges Turks Not to Assimilate

‘You Are Part of Germany, But Also Part of Our Great Turkey’

Thousands of Turkish immigrants gave Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a rock star welcome in Germany on Sunday in a show of national pride that remains fervent, even after decades spent in Germany. He told them they remain part of Turkey, and urged them to integrate into German society — but not to assimilate.

The lyric keeps echoing around the hall in Düsseldorf. “The land belongs to us all.” The sentence isn’t referring to Germany, but to Turkey.

And any place in Germany where Turks reside is now Turkish soil — this much is clear. The prime minister referred to “Great Turkey”, but he might just as well have said “Greater Turkey”, which would include the heart of most major German cities.

We posted severaltimesrecently about Srdja Trifkovic’s attempt to give a speech at the University of British Columbia last week, and his subsequent banishment from Canada.

The attention of the Canadian authorities was drawn to Dr. Trifkovic by an organization called “The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada”. As pointed out last week, the IRGC is a front for radical Bosnian Muslims, rather than a disinterested “researcher” into genocide.

Dr. Trifkovic just sent us an email with some details about the IRGC and its agenda, as gleaned from its own publications:

Emir Ramic, IRGC Director, is on the editorial board of the (Bosnian-Muslim) war veterans’ magazine Korak (Step), published in Sarajevo, to which he also contributes articles.

This magazine’s Issue No. 13 [pdf] has an interesting article: “Basic Principles of the Law of War in Islam” (pp. 13-17). The article asserts, inter alia, that “Jihad is a just and legitimate fight against aggression and a struggle in protection of human rights and freedoms.” (p. 15)

The Board of Ramic’s “Institute” includes… none other than “Asaf Dzanic, chief editor of the magazine Korak, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina”!

On p. 93 of the same issue there is a breathtaking piece of anti-Israeli bile. It’s in “Bosnian” but even a non-native speaker will understand the title: “Izraelski Rezim Je Teroristicki”, by Fikret Muslimovic. It could have been published in Gaza. It is a tad too hard-core for Ramallah, though…

On p. 99 we have another piece of Jew-hating venom: “Who is responsible for the blockade and massacre of the inhabitants of Gaza?” by Reza Burdzi

Other issues of Ramic’s magazine are no less worthy of scrutiny [all are in pdf format]:

A couple of weeks ago we reported on the BBC’s “documentary” about Geert Wilders entitled “Geert Wilders: Europe’s Most Dangerous Man?” The movie was a blatant hit-piece by a progressive outfit called Red Rebel Films, which is based in the Netherlands and enjoys partial funding by the state.

The film’s appearance on the BBC as well as the earlier release of an original Dutch version were coterminous with beginning of each of Mr. Wilders’ “hate speech” trials. It strains credulity to suppose that the timing of these events was mere coincidence.

Our British correspondent RezaV wrote a carefully documented letter of complaint to the BBC, and eventually received a reply. Here’s what he says about the Beeb’s response and his own counter-response:

Predictably, I received a bland and standard response to my complaint regarding the BBC’s Geert Wilders documentary that you covered at Gates of Vienna.

Below is the text of their reply. I’ve also pasted the text of my counter-response that explains how the BBC has broken its own rules in broadcasting the programme.

Anyone who has complained about this programme should reply and complain about their standard responses. I strongly believe that with this documentary the BBC really over-stepped the mark. This time, they’ve made some serious mistakes, and if we all take a few minutes to keep the pressure up, I really believe that we can get them to apologise.

We understand some viewers felt the programme showed bias against Mr Wilders.

To give the programme some context: Islamic integration is a controversial topic in Britain and even more in other parts of Europe. 09/11 saw a surge of anti Islamic political movements across in the States and Europe.

This programme looked at the rise of Geert Wilders, whose ideas are changing the Netherlands and are having an impact across Europe and beyond. To try and understand one of Europe’s leading anti Islamists and why parties sharing his views on Islam are getting increasingly powerful, the programme followed Wilders on his Dutch election campaign trail. The programme gave a significant amount of space to the views of a range of Wilders’ supporters in the Netherlands, as well as to Wilders himself. To reflect the extent of feeling on the matter the programme also heard from members of the international anti-Islamic network who support him.

The programme explored the promotion of the belief that Europe is being taken over by Islam and the response of prominent Muslims to that. It also looked into why Mr Wilders’ critics are strongly opposed to his progression in Dutch and European politics.

The programme reflected the fact that there are elements of the Muslim community who espouse violence as well as many others who oppose it and that the Qur’an is open to differing interpretations.

We feel the film is a piece of impartial journalism which explored a wide range of Mr Wilders’ ideological positions, hearing from both sides of an argument of which he is prominently involved in.

We would like to assure you that we’ve registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The unrest in the Middle East has finally spread to Oman. In the city of Sohar demonstrators clashed with police, who responded by firing tear gas. The rioters also set fire to government buildings. Additional incidents were reported in the city of Salalah, where demonstrators occupied government administrative offices.

In other news, hunger in North Korea has increased to the point that starving citizens are eating wild grass and dirt out of desperation. On a somewhat related note, chimpanzee meat is being sold illegally in restaurants and market stalls in the UK.

Thanks to bolta, C. Cantoni, DF, Diana West, Insubria, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The photograph above shows a handful of Leftists and Nazis grooving together at a anti-Israel demonstration in the Netherlands on Thursday. The protesters were expressing their outrage at the presence of Israelis in Groningen during the third in a series of concerts given by the Tzahal band. The event was sponsored by a Christian group, but that was not enough to mitigate the Zionist taint in the eyes of the protesters.

Our Dutch correspondent Timo (who is also the leader of the Dutch Defence League) attended the first night’s concert in Barneveld. Many thanks to Shirai of the DDL for translating Timo’s report:

Anja Meulenbelt is so pathetic

Anja — Every once in a while you feel ashamed to be Dutch. The pro-Palestinian blogging digital-troll Anja Meulenbelt[1] can cause such moments. This blond mental twin-sister of Greta Duisenberg[2] has lost all sense of reality — so much became clear when she posted her anti-Semitic cry for help while disturbing the concert of the Israeli army band Tzahal organized by Christenen voor Israël (Christians for Israel). Banging tin pots, pans and other objects sold in any random third world store would cause this disturbance.

IDF — According to Anja the army band of Israel doesn’t deserve to make music; instead it should be brought to justice for war crimes at the international court in the Hague. Because Israel and everything which has anything to do with Israel is by definition wrong. According to Anja, Israel has no right to defend itself against the continuous threat of terror, inhumane crimes in the form of rocket launches, suicide bombers and the ever-growing anti-Semitic climate worldwide. That Anja lacks respect and decency, and has a rather limited knowledge of history, is made clear by the fact that she fails to recognize that because of the current situation in Israel both sons and daughters throughout the country have no choice but to serve the Israeli army (IDF). An obligation that has caused many parents eternal grief. Anja cannot see that. Anja would rather side with those who make makeshift metal objects and launch them from a justly isolated terrorist-reservoir called the Gaza strip. And in addition to doing that, they exploit underage children for both defensive and offensive purposes in their never-ending attempts to destroy the state of Israel and the Jewish people in general.

Turnout — Therefore it was very amusing to see that Anja’s call had united a whopping five people! Four demented old women, including Anja herself and a pathetic, underfed-looking man who was probably dragged to the demonstration in exchange for food. A big failure if ever there was one. An action by Ben Kok[3], an active Judeo-Christian pastor, had assembled at least three times as many friends and sympathizers, and tried to invite the opponents to join a civil discussion. Ben Kok appeared much more reasonable and left a far better impression. Not to mention that the sold out concert for 1200 people itself was a success, of course.

Concert — In the intermission during concert by the beautiful Israeli singers, which was very decent and amusing, our attention was drawn to more serious problems, such as the fate of Jewish Ethiopians who are being outlawed in their own country, and the Israeli private Gilad Shalit who has been a captive for more than four years now. Judging by the generosity of the Christian audience, one can easily determine that they were sympathetic to Israelis. And so they should be!

The following video shows footage from Sudan of a jihad terror training camp for boys, some of them very young. What is particularly chilling about it is that these scenes of brainwashing and weapons training are being used as propaganda directed at Muslims in Europe and North America to induce them to donate their zakat payments for the maintenance of the camp.

A hundred years ago Turkey was known as “The Sick Man of Europe” — and with good reason. For most of the 19th century it had been driven back and whittled away by the European powers until its territory was reduced to a tiny slice of European soil, the Anatolian peninsula, and a set of destitute fiefdoms in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Maghreb.

At the height of its power in 1683, the Ottoman Empire — which was also the Caliphate in those days — extended to the gates of Vienna in the northwest, into Polish territory in the north, into Russian territory in the Black Sea and the Caucasus, into Persia in the east, and along the Arab-dominated littorals of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and North Africa.

Turkey staggered into the 20th century as an empire only because certain of the great powers found it expedient to keep it on life support. Great Britain in particular needed the “sick man” to act as a buffer between Russia and British interests in the Mediterranean and the Near East. Denying Russia access to the Dardanelles was a principal British foreign policy objective right up until 1914, and a near-moribund Turkey served that purpose very well.

Then came the Great War, and everything changed. Turkey was dismembered, Russia became the Soviet Union, and Britain, France, and Italy agreed to divide up the Near East as best suited their interests.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Modern Turkey is a stronger and more effective power than the Ottoman Empire was under the last of the Sultans. Even so, it is still no real danger to Europe — if the Turks were to become bellicose, even the shriveled military capability of the EU could handle them.

So why has Europe chosen to cower and truckle in the face of Turkish arrogance and supremacism? Why did the EU allow Turkey to become the playground bully of Europe?

As an example of this inexplicable trend, consider the following article from The Local about Turkey’s latest demands on Germany:

Erdogan Says Germany Must Support Turkish EU Membership

A day before he is due in Germany, Turkish President [actually Prime Minister — BB] Tayyib Erdogan has harshly criticised Germany’s policy towards Turkish efforts to join the European Union, saying it should support full membership.

“The expectation of the Turkish population is that Germany, as previously under earlier CDU governments, take a leading role within the EU regarding the entry negotiations with Turkey,” Erdogan told Saturday’s edition of the Rheinische Post.

Notice that the Turkish prime minister is right at home with ordering the German government around. His demands are not phrased as polite requests, but as near-commands — as if he were accustomed to German obedience.

He acknowledges that Chancellor Merkel’s policy is aimed at a domestic audience, but he has no qualms about interfering directly in Germany’s internal political affairs:

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has most recently proposed a ‘privileged partnership’ between Turkey and the European Union, something Erdogan rejects, and suggested was only a construct for domestic consumption.

Mr. Erdogan has good reason to believe he can meddle in Germany’s affairs, because he has the support and collaboration of eminent German political figures, including a former chancellor:

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Muamar Kaddafi continues to hang in there in Libya, although there are reports that he has packed his bags full of gold bullion and is prepared to flee to Zimbabwe. President Obama and Hillary Clinton have demanded that he step down, since he no longer has any legitimacy. The EU is trying to track all Col. Ghedaffi’s money in its banking system so that it can freeze his assets.

In other news, in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake in New Zealand, up to one-third of the buildings in central Christchurch may have to be demolished. The death toll currently stands at 144, but it is expected to rise as more bodies are pulled from the remaining rubble.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, California, a freak winter storm has brought torrential rains, hail, and even heavy snow in some areas — more evidence of Anthropogenic Climate Change.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DF, Insubria, Kitman, Steen, Vlad Tepes, Zenster, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The following article, as translated by JLH, concerns a recent decision by the Swiss legislature to tighten the laws to make forced marriages and marriages to minors more difficult. No particular group or religion is specified in the legislation, but it’s not hard to guess who the lawmakers had in mind.

The translator includes this introductory note:

This article may offer some explanation of what makes Switzerland different from the rest of Europe. Here, their executive body tends toward a lighter punishment, but the legislature — by its nature closer to the people — insists on making it harsher. The smallness of both land and population also makes the use of a referendum a potent “populist” weapon.

Forced marriage is to be illegal in Switzerland in the future — no matter where it was entered into. It will be punished with a maximum of five years in jail. With this ruling, the Federal Council’s report is following objections from its consultation with the legislature.

In combating forced marriages, the government had intended to let it go at three years at most. That has been the maximum penalty in previous cases of coercion. But in the consultation, it was insisted that this offense be treated separately.

The Federal Council will no longer tolerate marriages to minors, as it firmly maintains in an alteration of the legislation on international private law. Henceforth, all requirements for marriage in Switzerland will be exclusively judged by Swiss law.

Marriages to minors — including among foreigners — are no longer acceptable. Marriages to minors performed outside the country are likewise impermissible. In Switzerland, the minimum age for marriage is 18.

Almost everyone has seen the photos and videos of Muslims praying on the streets of Paris. With thousands of posteriors pointed skywards, they clog the thoroughfares of the French capital every Friday, claiming it as territory for the Ummah through their public devotions.

But it’s not just France. The video below shows the same sort of behavior exhibited by Muslims in Athens. I asked our Greek-German correspondent MaggieTh to summarize the Greek-language portions of the video, and here’s what he had to say:

The newscaster just says that 2,000 Muslims gathered today in such-and-such a place in order to blah-blah.

At the end another newscaster says some Greeks gathered during the prayers too and threw eggs at them, played loud music, etc. The poor Muslims were very annoyed.

Here is the context for this issue:

Since 1830 there hasn’t been a single mosque in (Southern) Greece, and all Muslims that arrived in the 1990s have been praying in normal buildings (like flats) that have been changed into “mosques”. Since the 1990s they have put pressure on the government (with the help of the EU) for the construction of a great monumental mosque near Athens, with the money Saudi Arabia has been offering for many decades to fund such a project. With the help of many multiculturally-oriented Greeks, they are pursuing their plans.

A lot of people are against these gatherings, but others show their solidarity with them, because they are poor, good, and deprived of their right to pray in their monumental mosque. This mosque has now been granted them, after extreme pressure from the EU, and it will be built in the next few years.

The original video from Riposte Laïque was accompanied by text in French. Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the titling:

We just received the following message from Dr. Srdja Trifkovic concerning his banishment from Canada on Thursday. He’s asking as many people as possible to protest what happened by writing emails to politicians and the media in Canada:

I am unable to send individual notes to my friends who have been kind enough to express their support after I was refused entry into Canada last Thursday.

Many have kindly offered to help. I would greatly appreciate if you did, not just as a gesture of support for me personally but also in defense of liberty and common decency. If you have a few minutes to spare please send a letter with your comments to:

In the last few years, Sweden has become known as the “Rape Capital of Europe”, and with good reason. Not only are women there more likely than anywhere else in Europe to experience the unwanted attention of culturally enriched men, but the Swedish media do their best never to mention this trend or report on sexual assaults by immigrants.

One of our Swedish contacts sent this video about an incident at a public swimming pool when eleven- and twelve-year-old girls were attacked and raped by Muslim immigrants. He included this note:

There are a lot of stories about what Sweden calls “alone refugee children” who immigrate in large numbers to Sweden. They are, however, most often not children but around seventeen or older. They lie about their age and throw their IDs away. They are not “alone”, either since many later bring their families with them. And they aren’t refugees either, for that matter.

In any case, there have been many reports of violence by these immigrants (mostly from Somalia and Afghanistan), and the latest incident may be seen below. This hasn’t been reported by mainstream media yet but... I think the story is true, especially after considering that there have been other rapes at that bath house before.

Note: “bath” in this video refers to what Americans would call a public swimming pool:

Friday, February 25, 2011

Thousands of protesters marched in the streets of Amman, Jordan today, led by a coalition including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Communists. Meanwhile, in Libya the situation remains chaotic and violent, with rebels now said to be in control of the eastern oil fields, three quarters of which are closed.

The anticipated refugee crisis in the Mediterranean is causing grave concern in the EU, which has allocated €25 million to handle the emergency. The Libyan regime had acted as a de facto border control for illegal African immigrants into Europe, and that control has now vanished.

In other news, Pakistan is disregarding the diplomatic immunity of CIA agent Raymond Davis, and will put him on trial for the alleged killing of two men in Lahore.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DF, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Margo says that Rudy Felsh is a nasty vulgar kid.Someday he’ll go to Hell or jail or Canada.

— Shel Silverstein

As I reported earlier today, the Canadian government barred Dr. Srdja Trifkovic from entering Canada yesterday to speak at the University of British Columbia after being invited by the Serbian Students Association.

On Thursday, February 24, I was denied entry to Canada. After six hours’ detention and sporadic interrogation at Vancouver airport I was escorted to the next flight to Seattle. It turns out I am “inadmissible on grounds of violating human or international rights for being a proscribed senior official in the service of a government that, in the opinion of the minister, engages or has engaged in terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide, a war crime or a crime against humanity within the meaning of subsections 6 (3) to (5) of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.”

It appears that my contacts with the Bosnian Serb leaders in the early nineties make me “inadmissible” today. As it happens I was never one of their officials, “senior” or otherwise, but the story has been told often enough (most recently in one of my witness testimonies at The Hague War Crimes Tribunal). The immigration officer at Vancouver decided that what was good for The Hague was not good enough for Canada; but her decision evidently had been written somewhere else by someone else well before my arrival. (She was so out of her depth that she asked me if President Vojislav Koštunica had been indicted for war crimes.)

I’ve visited Canada some two dozen times since the Bosnian war ended; ironically, one of those visits, in February 2000, was to provide expert testimony before the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa. Why should the Canadian authorities suddenly decide to keep me out of the country now, and for transparently spurious reasons? Well, because the Muslims told them so. The campaign started when a Bosnian-Muslim propaganda front, calling itself The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada, demanded to have me “banned” from speaking at the University of British Columbia on February 24. The ensuing campaign soon escalated into demands to keep me out of Canada altogether. The authorities have now obliged.

Dr. Trifkovic goes on to remind us of what Ambassador James Bissett said last week:

Spackle is a regular reader and occasional commenter at Gates of Vienna. In an email to us he described a recent culturally enriched encounter he had with a sales clerk at Barnes and Noble. It was so very much a “Barnes and Noble sucks” moment (B&N Sucks has a Facebook page with various improvisations on that theme) that I asked his permission to post the story. Besides, I wanted to share one of my own.

First, Spackle’s Story:

I just wanted to share something amusing that happened to me this weekend.

I went to my local Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of God’s Battalions. I remember hearing about it when it first came out, and then was reminded once again from this past week’s news feed.

[note: The full title of the book, an historical account, is God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades. You can check out the link for the customer reviews, sixty-one all together, of which thirty seven are five-star recommendations while the others break along some unpredictable lines. – Dymphna]

I searched first in the history section, but could not find it. So I went to the customer service desk for help. There was another man in front of me being helped by a beautiful young girl behind the desk. Just as the man in front of me was wrapping up I happened to drop some change on the floor. After I finished picking it all up instead of a beautiful young girl standing before me, there was a fully bearded Muslim male in his mid-twenties.

“Okay,” I thought, “this is going to be interesting…” In the beginning he was warm and friendly, and asked how he could help me. I told him I was looking for a book called God’s Battalions. Okay, so far so good. He typed away on his computer, and then all of a sudden his face and demeanor changed when what I was about to purchase sank in. The book cover says, “God’s Battalions — A case for the crusades,” and I assume there was a book description as well on his computer screen as he took far too long just to discover where it was located and if it was in stock.

He then very coolly asked me to follow him. The whole time I observed him closely to watch body language and demeanor. He led me to of all places the Christianity section! I said that it seemed odd to put such a book in the Christian section. I must admit I was fishing a little. No reply from him at all.

He eventually found it and handed it to me like it was burning a hole in his hand, and got away from me as quickly as possible without ever looking at my face again. I thanked him to his back and he kind of grunted back at me.

I suppose I should be thankful that he didn’t just tell me it was out of stock straight away. While there was nothing dramatic or overtly hostile in his behavior, it was still very interesting observing the whole episode from beginning to end.

I should also mention that if he wasn’t born and raised here he had at least been in America since he was a young child. His accent and mannerisms were distinctly American. Actually, I would dare to say that he would be classed as one of those mythical animals we always hear about but never actually see, the “moderate Muslim”.

I guess “moderate” in this case means that he didn’t try to bash my infidel brains in for purchasing such a horrible book. Or maybe “moderate” meaning he served me with clenched teeth and a thin veneer of professionalism? Professionalism being the only thing holding him back from freeing the beast inside.

In retrospect I would rather have talked to the beautiful girl. And the book is fabulous.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Spackle’s story reminded me of one of my own Barnes and Ignoble moments. Mine have been political. After all, the B&N I used to frequent was in Charlottesville – known to many of us as Berkeley East, though I prefer to call the town “Li’l Kumquat”. That is, if New York City is the Big Apple, then Charlottesville tends toward another fruit, one that is sweet on the outside, sour and seedy in the middle. Not really edible unless you mush it into marmalade.

Spackle’s story falls within the “Cultural Enrichment” genre. My experience was merely the usual political clash conservatives in Charlottesville experience at the hands of their betters, the Leftish, Loutish Majority. I’m sure than many people on the right of the political spectrum who are doomed to live and work amongst these Orthodox Lemmings have had experiences similar to mine.

This video below (“Free Speech in Europe”) by Pat Condell is from a couple of months ago. Not long after it was released, MaggieTh prepared a Greek translation for us, but Vlad ran into technical difficulties with the character encoding — the Greek subtitles couldn’t simply be imported as a text file, which is the usual procedure for languages using the extended Latin character set.

The technical troubles have at last been overcome, and the Greek subtitles are now available. Many thanks to MaggieTh for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for all his hard labor getting the subtitles to work. The video and a full transcript are below the jump:

The unenriched passengers on board this French bus must have known they were being culturally enriched when they heard the chants recorded in the video below, but they may not have realized the exact nature of the litany that was being invoked against them.

Many thanks to Mohamed the Atheist for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

I posted yesterday about Dr. Srdja Trifkovic’s planned speech at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. A Bosniak pressure group had written a letter to President Stephen Toope of UBC protesting Dr. Trifkovic’s appearance, but as of yesterday he was still scheduled to speak.

If President Toope was hesitant about suppressing free speech at UBC, the Canadian government was more forthright: it denied Dr. Trifkovic entry at the border. Our Serbian correspondent Gray Falcon quoted the following explanation from the Canadian government:

Inadmissible on grounds of violating human or international rights for being a prescribed senior official in the service of a government that, in the opinion of the minister, engages or has engaged in terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or genocide, a war crime or a crime against humanity within the meaning of subsections 6 (3) to (5) of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Remember: this is Canada we’re talking about, a country that admits (and often celebrates) representatives of Islamic theocracies, terrorist front groups, and Hamas-lovers like George Galloway. Not to mention being a long-time fan of Fidel Castro.

Srdja Trifkovic, in contrast, represents no state and no political organization. He speaks for no one but himself. His only offense is to question the dominant narrative about what happened in Bosnia in the 1990s.

Welcome to Modern Multicultural Canada.

Many thanks to Kitman for alerting us to this news video from Canadian television about what happened yesterday:

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Libya is on the verge of collapse as violence and chaos continue. In his latest statements, Col. Qadaffi’s blamed the insurrection on Al Qaeda, and compared himself with Queen Elizabeth. One of his sons is said to have joined the rebellion.

The withdrawal of Libyan oil from the market, coupled with the political instability of the entire region, has sent the price of oil skyrocketing. Gasoline prices in parts of Western Europe are expected to rise to the equivalent of more than $8 a gallon in the near future.

In other news, a judge in Britain has ordered the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden to face trial for sexual assault.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DF, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Mary Abdelmassih, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Many thanks to A. Millar for sending this guest-review of Rebecca Bynum’s new book.

Allah Is Dead: Why Islam is not a Religionby Rebecca Bynum

Reviewed by A. Millar

Books on Islam are a saturated market, an editor friend of mine told a few months ago. At the time I thought she might be right. I had only recently read a couple of works that, for want of a better description, read like second-rate Bruce Bawer. Maudlin and self-absorbed, these books (which shall remain nameless) tell us more about the authors than they do about radical Islam. Former boyfriends, Holland in the Springtime, and hints that the Pulitzer Prize went to the wrong author, are punctuated with references to female genital mutilation, terrorist acts, and hook-handed radical preachers.

It is as if one were wandering around an Impressionist exhibition only to discover someone has scribbled images of Palestinian terrorists in thick black marker pen all over the Monets. Yes, the juxtapositions is jarring, but the average person living in the West is assaulted by contradictory messages every day, whether on the stream of billboard adverts he passes on the way to work or in an evening’s television-watching. Consequently, such books fail to shock, and, indeed, to force us to see the crisis of the West as an existential threat. Our jaded culture, and cultural relativism, allows us to believe that the graffiti might be the real art. And one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter anyway. So what’s the problem?

It’s this kind of cultural relativism, and cultural suicidal tendencies, that Rebecca Bynum confronts in Allah Is Dead: Why Islam is not a Religion (New English Review Press). At 152 pages, this work is slimmer than those like the aforementioned, but it is denser and far more challenging. Few, if any, will agree with everything that is said. But this book was not written to be agreed with. It was written to shake things up, and push the reader outside of his comfort zone. An engaged mind is more important to Bynum than a nodding head.

Western culture is in sharp focus throughout Allah Is Dead. Sometimes a crack in the dam of the West is spotlighted — from promiscuous notions of equality to churches that want to rethink Christ so as not to offend Muslims. At other times it is contrasted with Islam. As such, Allah Is Dead is in the vein of Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam by Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Marcello Pera, and, to a certain extent, Eric Voegelin’s Science, Politics and Gnosticism. But the pace is different.

Three ancient monasteries in Egypt are among the oldest continuously functioning Christian religious establishments in the world. Until the recent insurrection and the overthrow of the Mubarak regime, the monasteries could count on the police protection from marauding Muslim zealots and thieves looking for valuable icons.

When civil order vanished from Egypt a few weeks ago, the Copts appealed to the army for protection. They were told that the military could not protect them, that they must protect themselves. And so they did, building protective fences around the monastery.

Unfortunately, it seems the army prefers that the monasteries remain unprotected: on Sunday soldiers with bulldozers arrived and began destroying the fences. Any Copts who attempted to interfere are being shot at by troops.

(AINA) -- For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo. Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers. Several sources confirmed the army’s use of RPG ammunition. Four people have been arrested including three monks and a Coptic lawyer who was at the monastery investigating yesterday’s army attack..

Monk Aksios Ava Bishoy told activist Nader Shoukry of Freecopts the armed forces stormed the main entrance gate to the monastery in the morning using five tanks, armored vehicles and a bulldozer to demolish the fence built by the monastery last month to protect themselves and the monastery from the lawlessness which prevailed in Egypt during the January 25 Uprising.

“When we tried to address them, the army fired live bullets, wounding Father Feltaows in the leg and Father Barnabas in the abdomen,” said Monk Ava Bishoy. “Six Coptic workers in the monastery were also injured, some with serious injuries to the chest.”

The injured were rushed to the nearby Sadat Hospital, the ones in serious condition were transferred to the Anglo-Egyptian Hospital in Cairo.

Father Hemanot Ava Bishoy said the army fired live ammunition and RPGs continuously for 30 minutes, which hit part of the ancient fence inside the monastery. “The army was shocked to see the monks standing there praying ‘Lord have mercy’ without running away. This is what really upset them,” he said. “As the soldiers were demolishing the gate and the fence they were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Victory, Victory’”.

He also added that the army prevented the monastery’s car from taking the injured to hospital.

The army also attacked the Monastery of St. Makarios of Alexandria in Wady el-Rayan, Fayoum, 100 km from Cairo. It stormed the monastery and fired live ammunition on the monks. Father Mina said that one monk was shot and more than ten have injuries caused by being beaten with batons. The army demolished the newly erected fence and one room from the actual monastery and confiscated building materials. The monastery had also built a fence to protect itself after January 25 and after being attacked by armed Arabs and robbers leading to the injury of six monks, including one monk in critical condition who is still hospitalized.

The army had given on February 21 an ultimatum to this monastery that if the fence was not demolished within 48 hours by the monks, the army would remove it themselves (AINA 2-23-2011).

The Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement on their Facebook page denying that any attack took place on St. Bishoy Monastery in Wady el-Natroun, “Reflecting our belief in the freedom and chastity of places of worship of all Egyptians.” The statement went on to say that the army just demolished some fences built on State property and that it has no intention of demolishing the monastery itself (video of army shooting at Monastery).

Father Hedra Ava Bishoy said they are in possession of whole carton of empty bullet shells besides the people who are presently in hospital to prove otherwise.

The army attack came after the monks built a fence for their protection after the police guards left their posts and fled post the January 25th Uprising and after being attacked by prisoners who were at large, having escaped from their prisons during that period.

“We contacted state security and they said there was no police available for protection,” said Father Bemwa,” So we called the Egyptian TV dozens of times to appeal for help and then we were put in touch with the military personnel who told us to protect ourselves until they reach us.” He added that the monks have built a low fence on the borders of one side of the monastery which is vulnerable to attacks, on land which belongs to the monastery, with the monks and monastery laborers keeping watch over it 24 hours a day.

The monks of St. Bishoy are now holding a sit-in in front of monastery in protest against the abuse of the army by using live bullets against civilians

Nearly 7000 Copts staged a peaceful rally in front of the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, where Pope Shenouda III was giving his weekly lecture (video), after which they marched towards Tahrir Square to protest the armed forces attacks on Coptic monasteries.

The army’s claim that no demolitions took place is belied by several videos that were taken by Copts on the scene, including the one below. Many thanks to Mohamed the Atheist for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. The video and a transcript are below the jump:

On March 3, 2009, the president of the University of British Columbia felt compelled to send out the following letter (pdf) to the university community:

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

6328 Memorial RoadVancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z2

Telephone (604) 822-8300Fax (604) 822-5055

Professor Stephen J. ToopePresident and Vice-Chancellor

Respectful Debate3 March 2009

From:

Stephen J. Toope

President and Vice Chancellor

To:

Members of the UBC Community:

As a globally influential university, UBC is not, nor could it be, immune from conflicts half a world away, These conflicts are both a reminder of the rare peace we enjoy in Canada and a challenge to community values of respect for human dignity and the special place of free expression that universities protect.

When these external conflicts threaten to divide our own community, we need to pay special attention to the rules that govern our conduct as members of the university and as citizens or residents of Canada.

This week a segment of UBC’s student population has planned events that are being publicized in a manner offensive to another segment. While the locus of attention of these events is the political situation in the Middle East, the means of publicity at UBC and other Canadian universities has created a chilling impact for some members of our own community.

As a university community, we place a paramount value on the free and lawful expression of ideas and viewpoints, As scholars, we believe that discussion across boundaries and across pre-conceptions is a necessary condition for the resolution of even the most intractable conflicts. At the same time, we are a community that values respect for all others, even those with whom we disagree fundamentally.

For a university, anything that detracts from the free expression of ideas is just not acceptable. Robust debate can scarcely occur, for example, when some members of the community are made to feel personally attacked, not for their ideas but for their very identity. When this happens, university disciplinary policies come into play, and there may be recourse to provincial human rights and federal anti-hate legislation,

Forms of speech should not be banned simply on the grounds that they are “offensive,” but if the speech is designed to preclude any speech in response, if it amounts to a threat against a person or an identifiable group, then a line will have been crossed.

As we navigate the shoals of political conflict, I call upon each and every member of our community to display the reason, generosity of spirit and forebearance that must define debate within the University of British Columbia. If these values are threatened, the university will take all necessary action to defend our community life.

When a university president in Canada warns his students that their free speech may have to be abridged, you know that a member of a particularly reviled group has been invited to appear on campus — an Israeli cabinet minister, say, or an American conservative, or an advocate for democracy in Iran, or perhaps an opponent of abortion.

This is what I call the “Free Speech, However…” Syndrome, and it is not confined to Canadian universities. It is endemic across the entire West, in schools, universities, the media, and in general public discourse. The rationale for the syndrome runs something like this:

A university (or school, or news service, or corporation) is a place in which the free market of ideas is crucial. Our society is enriched by the expression of diverse viewpoints, even controversial ones.

HOWEVER…

Expressions that veer into hate speech or tend to exclude will not be tolerated. Opinions which are hateful, and thus will not be permitted, include:

Opposition to Multiculturalism

Objections to gay marriage

Denial that anthropogenic climate change is significant

Opposition to abortion

Assertion of biological differences between the sexes (or among “genders”)

Investigation of biological differences among different ethnic groups

Expressions of patriotism and national pride

Criticism of Islam

Support for the State of Israel

And so on and so forth.

Included in the forbidden categories of speech is any questioning of the received narrative on what happened in Srebrenica in 1995. If you question the Bosniak take on what happened, doubt that a genocide occurred, or point to the evidence of a propaganda hoax by Bosnian Muslims, you are beyond the pale.

With Srebrenica in mind, President Toope’s formula for “respectful debate” was dusted off in anticipation of an event scheduled to take place today on the campus of UBC Vancouver. Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, a Serbian-American historian and author, was invited to speak by the Serbian Students Association. This would not do, not at all, at least according to a group known as the Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada, which finds “revisionism” on Srebrenica to be completely unacceptable.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A police captain in Tulsa, Oklahoma has filed a federal lawsuit after refusing to attend an “outreach” event at a local mosque when ordered by his superiors. He was reassigned by the police department, and is being investigated for refusing a direct order. His lawsuit is based on the First Amendment, and he says that the police department cannot order him to attend an event that violates his religious beliefs, nor require him to enter a mosque except on a police call as a part of his duties.

In other news, there’s Libya. And Algeria. And Bahrain. And Saudi Arabia. And Jordan. And Egypt. And Morocco. And Libya again.

Col. Ghedaffi continues to cling to power, and remains defiant. The eastern third of Libya is said to be almost entirely in rebel hands. Various estimates place the death toll so far between 1,000 and 10,000 people. The European border agency Frontex is expecting a flood of refugees in the coming weeks, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 1.5 million. The flow of oil from Libya to Italy has been cut off, but the Italian government says it has other sources of supply.

In related news, protest demonstrations inspired by those in the Middle East have been mounted in three North Korean cities.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Really, the bleg only lasted a week. It just seemed longer to some of us, especially since no one gets any mugs and we’re not raffling off dinner for two at the Dew Drop Inn or a weekend getaway to a bed-and breakfast in the Shenandoah Valley.

Hmm… that’s an idea we’ve discussed before. We could become the NPR of the blogosphere!

Or maybe not. That’ a concept badly in need of rebranding and refurbishing — though perhaps they’ve improved in the years since I quit hitting my head against the wall of listening to their “news”. The relentless repeated tales of PoorPalis oppressed by those mean Israelis, or their moral equivalents, the poor American homeless oppressed by those heartless Republican administrations. Funny thing about the American variety: they disappear like shadows dispersed by the beneficent sun of Democrat presidents, only to reappear shivering and destitute when the Left loses power.

Of course, the perennial PoorPalis are with us always, stateless and shoeless victims of their evil neighbors. Just ask NPR.

Anyway, despite our lowered expectations for this quarter’s fundraiser (due to the economy and the coincident eruptions all over North Africa and the Middle East), we had more new donors come to the door this time than ever before. The bottom line is a bit thinner than usual, but so are many wallets. That people show up and share their resources at all continues to be a source of deep encouragement for us. We’re obviously on the right path, doing what we should be doing. Y’all are amazingly generous in helping to shoulder the burden of the Baron’s work.

This has probably been my most enjoyable fund-raiser in a long while. My health has improved so much that I no longer fret over how long it takes to respond to everyone who gave to the cause. I know I’ll write to everyone eventually because now I have the energy to do so.

And, oh my, the variety of people who read us and write to say what they like about Gates of Vienna. For one fellow, the news feed is “pure gold”. For another it’s our coverage of the EDL. For someone else, it’s the window we provide to Europe. I don’t have permission to tell the stories, but you are an incredible lot with an astonishing breadth of experiences. As I read your stories, I feel so white bread standing next to you.

But that’s no matter; it simply means that sometimes you are able to lead us into areas we’d not have been able to consider otherwise.

The following essay by Nicolai Sennels concerns the use of madrassas as terrorist training centers. It was originally published at Europe News.

Western Quran schools are “terrorist factories”

By Dr. Nicolai Sennels

How would you turn normal human beings into murderous and hateful psychopaths who blindly obey their totalitarian systems and its authorities, suppressing and killing innocent people? In short: How would you create a terrorist?

Violent and murderous political, ethnic, and religious regimes have used the same effective methods all over the world throughout history. The procedure consists of two simple steps that are repeated again and again:

1.

You force a person to repeat the system’s doctrine over and over for months and years until he knows every word by heart and it pervades his or her whole way of thinking and it is the only truth he believes in.

2.

You beat and scare the person (best if done randomly and severely), thus forcing him to become insensitive and unempathic in order to be able to bear the physical and psychological suffering and to increase his feelings of anger, frustration, and fear — feelings that are then directed against the system’s enemies.

In this way you will create a person whose whole being is pervaded by the system’s doctrine and who has lost the ability to feel both his own and others’ pain. You will have an emotionally cold person who blindly follows his leaders and their political or religious doctrine. If you use this method on a child who is in the process of developing his personality, the learned doctrine will simply become a part of the child’s personality. The psychological impact of the physical abuse will also be deeper. As children and youth are dependent on adults for acceptance, they are easier to influence.

Being a child psychologist, I was shocked to realise that this is exactly what is done to millions of Muslim children in both the Muslim world and the West. Tens of thousand of madrassas and Quranic schools all over the world are making their students repeat the Quran and the Hadiths again and again, until they know them by heart. They are told to believe every word and never to question either the way or the goal.

It is normal in these schools that the defenceless and innocent children are randomly beaten and humiliated by the teachers and older students — who themselves are emotionally destroyed beings who have been abused in the same way that they now use against their pupils. They personify the goal: The abused becomes the abuser.

A few weeks ago, in the aftermath of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, Democrats and the media blamed Republicans and “tea partiers” as indirect contributors to the tragedy. The “overheated political rhetoric” created by right-wing talk radio and Tea Party events was said to create a “divisive climate” that helped cause the violence

For the last week or so there has been a standoff in Madison, Wisconsin over the state legislature’s proposed withdrawal of collective-bargaining privileges for public sector unions. The issue has inspired a lot of nasty rhetoric from the leftish side of the political spectrum, and union goons have descended on the state’s capitol building, egged on by President Obama and other prominent Democrats. There have been violent incidents, and some thinly-veiled threats on the part of various union leaders and Democrat politicians.

Today the threats have suddenly become less thinly-veiled.

Congressman Michael Capuano (D, Massachusetts) was among the prominent decriers of right-wing hatred and incitement. Now we come to find out that incitement to violence is perfectly OK, as long as a Democrat is doing the inciting. Who would have guessed?

In the midst of a depression and record-breaking deficits, you’d expect the use of hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars for refurbishing foreign mosques to raise a few eyebrows at home.

But it doesn’t, not really. By now we all know what to expect from President Barack Hussein Obama: a preening solicitousness for all things Muslim, craven appeasement towards Muslim despots abroad, and collaboration with Muslim Brotherhood front groups here in the USA.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for YouTubing this news report from a Georgia TV station:

With all the grim news coming from North Africa and the Middle East, the crisis in Greece is being relegated to the sidelines. The Greek economy is still moribund, as retail sales decline and the repeated unrest drives away tourism. The country’s sovereign debt continues to increase even as the austerity measures required by the IMF and the EU increase unemployment and depress wages and consumer spending.

The solutions being publicly discussed are grim: another EU bailout, at least partial sovereign default, a return to the drachma, or some combination of all three.

Current economic conditions have sparked repeated riots. Another bout of violence occurred today in Athens, led by the Communists. Here’s the report from ANSAmed:

Greece: 10th General Strike, ‘Tahrir Square in Athens’

Athens, February 23 — “Let’s transform Syntagma Square in Athens into Cairo’s Tahrir Square, until Premier Giorgio Papandreou resigns!” is the slogan launched by Alekos Alavanos, historical leader of the Greek left, in today’s general strike across the country against the austerity measures brought in to deal with the economic-financial crisis.

Alavananos, deputy and former president of the far-left coalition Syriza, has urged Greeks to remain in Syntagma Square in front of Parliament at the end of the large demonstrations called for midday as part of the general strike called by all unions. “We are learning from the Egyptian people. Let’s do as they did in Tahrir Square, let’s stay here until Papandreou’s government has stepped down,” said Alavanos.

It is not clear whether Syriza and the rest of the left, who are putting up opposition to the Socialist government both in Parliament and in the streets, or the anarchist movement, will take on Alavanos’s appeal as well.

Today’s strike, the tenth general one since the beginning of the crisis, will partially paralyse air traffic and urban transport, and will bring maritime and railway traffic to a complete halt, with hospitals also closed (except for emergencies) as well as public offices, schools, banks and pharmacies. There will also be an information black-out for 24 hours.

Below is a video of a policeman in Athens being firebombed. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for YouTubing this clip:

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifah of Bahrain has ordered the release of a number of Shi’ite political prisoners, one of a series of concessions made to protesters in an attempt to defuse the ongoing political crisis in the country.

Col. Moamar Ghaddafi insisted in a television appearance that he is still in Libya, and not in Venezuela. He remains defiant towards the protesters who have demanded his ouster. Violence continues throughout Libya, although reliable news about what is happening is scarce. A rumor that Italian warplanes assisted the Libyan air force in suppressing the demonstrators was vigorously denied by the Italian defense minister.

The conflict in Libya has raised the price of oil by 9%, and the damage to the Italian stock market caused the euro to fall against the dollar. The EU is concerned that a new flood of refugees may cross the Mediterranean from Libya, and some Italian analysts believe that more 100,000 people will flee North Africa in the coming weeks.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, CSP, DF, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Mary Abdelmassih, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara is one of the revered icons of our degraded age. The bloodthirsty Communist thug was idolized by my generation as the ultimate exemplar of Revolutionary Cool, and he is still idolized by empty-headed young people today, who spend millions of dollars every year on Che posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and all the other commercial bric-a-brac associated with a mass-market fad. And it’s not just the young — older people, especially Hollywood celebrities and aging rock stars, remain enamored of Che.

The Irish artist who created the iconographic image of Che is now attempting to gain clear copyright to the image so that he can donate the rights to the Guevara family and “the Cuban people”. Vlad Tepes has intermixed an Irish TV news report on the subject with historical footage and personal recollections of Che from a man who came to know the hero of the revolution all too well:

Earlier this month a young man was attacked, beaten, kicked, and robbed by “youths” in a Berlin subway station. He was left in a coma as a result of the attack. A second man might have suffered a similar fate had it not been for the timely intervention of member of the Bandidos motorcycle club — the only bystander who was willing to help the victims. (Readers who are interested in more information may consult these twostories from The Local.)

Politically Incorrect has posted a comprehensive report on the event, including an overview of the socialist political context that enables these excesses of cultural enrichment. Many thanks to JLH for the translation.

The case of journeyman painter Sebastian H. — kicked into a coma shortly before midnight on February 11, 2011 by four youths in the Berlin Lichtenberg subway station — has given the city no rest since it became known four days ago. Since similar “individual incidents” are clogging up local newscasts almost daily as dry two-line reports, what makes this one different? But first the facts.

The hunting down of Sebastian H. and the subsequent excess of violence were recorded by a subway platform camera. The recording shows the thirty-year-old in flight from the four youths until they catch him at the stairs, shove him down and immediately begin kicking the prostrate man. As he rises, dazed, and holds on to a column, one of the perpetrators springs at him full force. Then he robs the motionless figure. In further recordings passers-by on the platform are seen, who apparently neither help nor call the police. The police receive a total of one emergency call.

The second victim, after at first successfully fleeing, is found again by the perpetrators in front of the station and also kicked into submission. When a passer-by, according to police reports, intervened and said a “few choice words,” the youths abandoned their victim and ran away. According to other passers-by, it was a member of the “Bandidos” motorcycle gang.

Recognition thanks to “violence prevention”

In the subway videos a police officer recognized a dark-skinned student from a class he had given years ago in the prevention of violence. So all four perpetrators could be caught quickly. They were exclusively from immigrant families (from Kenya, Albania, Kosovo and Iraq). At their initial interrogation, they claimed that the painter and his colleague had provoked them with “Sieg Heil” shouts. The police evaluated this as an agreed-upon tactic, and it was soon withdrawn by the accused. According to the police, the intention of the attack from the beginning was to injure someone badly and then rob them

The sister of Sebastian H. — after he had been put into an artificial coma — wrote to the perpetrators on her Facebook page: “I hate you endlessly… I am a nurse and have seen many awful things, but the sight of my own brother was the worst and most horrifying thing I have ever experienced or seen.”

The first and most important reason for the continuing media interest and the palpable public empathy could be that the attack was coincidentally documented by video camera and then spread to the internet. A second reason is that it affected two craftsmen on the way home from a quitting-time beer. Parts of the populace which usually are reached by nothing else and only concentrate on their daily struggle to survive, also pricked up their ears. The Springer tabloids gave it corresponding coverage.

Remarkable Conclusions

And all at once, justice implies that it could make use of the framework of the existing laws, if it was just willing. Suddenly, all four of the perpetrators, even the 14 year-old are held in investigative custody, which was usually eschewed because a steady domicile was present and there was “no danger of flight.” And the charge — we hear and are astounded — is “attempted murder in the course of robbery — two incidents” (instead of “grievous bodily harm”).

That is one of many conclusions that can be drawn from this case and make it symptomatic for the condition of our society:

I’m glad I didn’t give up completely on LTC (ret.) Allen West, because he handled this taqiyya artist from CAIR magnificently.

The audio in the clip below is not always clear, so I’ll include the account of the event from Canada Free Press:

At a townhall meeting hosted by Congressman Allen West on Monday evening in Pompano Beach, the Q&A segment of the meeting featured a Koran wielding Nezar Hamze, Executive Director of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Hamze confronted Congressman West and asked him to point out where in the Koran does it give marching orders to Muslims “to carry out attacks against Americans and innocent people”. West quickly pointed out that the Koran was written long before America even existed and that it does indeed tell believers to kill infidels, and then proceeded to chronicle a lengthy list of historical Muslim acts of aggression. Congressman West closed his retort by referencing the Fort Hood shootings and 9-11 attacks, saying that his first hand experiences on the battlefield has given him insight into the tactics that Islamists use before telling Hamze not to “try to blow sunshine up my butt” with his criticism of him. West took offense to Hamze’s amateurish criticism of his stance on radical Islam and concluded by telling Mr. Hamze to “put the microphone down and go home.”

Today is the last day of our winter fundraiser. Tomorrow we’ll do a wrap-up of all the people and places who have pitched in during the past week.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As I have said many times in the past, Dymphna and I never planned to spend our declining years this way.

We always assumed we would age out like any other married couple, gardening, analyzing the weather report in minute detail, and reading the obituaries. No American geezer in his right mind would plan to run a Counterjihad blog with a focus on Europe.

But here we are anyway. This is our place now, and we’ll stick to it.

Times are tough, and getting tougher. With the possible exception of George Soros — hi, George! — our readers are in the same boat we are. As a result, there are somewhat fewer people willing to donate this time around, and the amounts are more modest. Even so, it’s gratifying to see that people can be so generous in these hard economic times.

If our circumstances remain this lean, we may have to return to the idea of hosting ads here. As most of you know, after Pajamas Media gave us the boot back in 2008, we made a compact with our readers not to take on any more ads as long as we were able to get by on donations and odd jobs. Up until now, we’ve just barely been able to make ends meet, but the current depression may have advanced to the point where that is no longer feasible.

Our traffic is high enough now that we should be able to find a reasonable rate for hosting a banner ad and some skyscrapers on the sidebar. I haven’t done the research yet to discover which outfit offers the best deal while providing not-too-obnoxious ads, but we intend to be choosy. I don’t know if you’ve seen all those badly-drawn animated gifs of women squeezing their belly fat, but we’d like to avoid that sort of thing if we possibly can.

Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at Jihad Watch. Some excerpts are below:

I should thank the pro-Israeli, Islam-critical blog Document for bringing this to my attention. The two Norwegian essays cited here were written by Ole Jørgen Benedictow, a professor emeritus at the University of Oslo specializing in the history of the Middle Ages. The translations were made by me, and the shorter excerpts should capture the spirit of the texts.

Benedictow, as an expert in the field, has tried to influence the public debate on issues related to Islam vs. Europe in the Middle Ages, but has repeatedly experienced being rebuffed in favor of young Marxists with little knowledge of the period. He is annoyed by the fact that people who know very little about this era and its complexities have easy access to the mass media and can spread falsehoods virtually unchallenged. “Revolutionary Socialists” — that is, Communists — have no problem promoting their propaganda in major newspapers despite representing a totalitarian ideology that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people — 100 million if you believe The Black Book of Communism — during the twentieth century alone.

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Libyan uprising has intensified even further since my post earlier today. I’ve covered most of the material already, but from the more recent accounts it seems that horrendous destruction and loss of life in Tripoli, much of it inflicted indiscriminately by the Libyan military against civilian neighborhoods. A persistent rumor that Moamar Ghedafi has fled to Venezuela remains unconfirmed.

Almost unnoticed alongside the Libyan situation was yesterday’s violence in Morocco. Protesters burned down a bank in northern Morocco, and five charred corpses were later found in the ruins.

In related news, the surge of refugees from Tunisia has resumed after a brief lull. Tunisian migrants clashed violently with police on the island of Lampedusa. Italy is dreading the inevitable maritime exodus from Libya, most of which will make for Italian shores.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DF, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, KGS, Kitman, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

According to the mind-boggling logic of the “judge”, ‘the factually completely unjustified charge of pedophilia’ was made against the founder of the religion and therewith ‘an absolutely dishonorable behavior’ confronted, which was calculated to denigrate him in the eyes of the public.” For, according to the judge, pedophilia is exclusively directed against children, which was known not to be the case with Mohammed. Mrs. Sabaditsch-Wolff never maintained this to be the case. Indeed, the charge against her mentions not only sex with children but the relatively high “wear-out rate” of wives.

On this subject, the following points:

Not just pedophilia but every child abuse — whether pedophiliac or not — is “absolutely dishonorable behavior” and a crime! And by today’s standards, Mohammed was doubtless guilty of child abuse: According to Islam’s basic texts, at age fifty, he married a six-year-old girl and consummated the marriage when she was nine.

Aside from that, pedophilia is interchangeable with child abuse in everyday speech. Thus, for instance, the demand for removal of the celibacy requirement in the Church is made repeatedly in connection with pedophilia — as presently in the memorandum of German theology professors.

Far worse is the fact that Islamic legal scholars to this day invoke his example as well as the Koran (which regulates the divorce/repudiation of pre-pubescent girls) to justify child marriages with considerably older men and consequently child abuse. This is true from Morocco to Indonesia and even includes the “moderate” and largest Muslim organizations in the lands. In several Islamic countries, there is not even a legal minimum marriageable age. Even where there is one, there are child marriages, and in no small number: In Turkey alone there are said to be hundreds of thousands.